Shroud of the Avatar - Updates 23 & 24

woges

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With four hours to go there are a few updates for RG's Kickstarter; one update with property and another with concept art and videos. Update 23:
FINAL DAY BONUS REWARDS: Waterfront Property, Island Castles, Custom Avatars, Collector’s Edition Story of Mondain, & More!
We're down to less than 20 hours to go for our Kickstarter campaign, and we need everyone's help for our last big push! We're adding even more bonus rewards that make for some juicy upgrades!
Waterfront! Waterfront! Waterfront! Houseboats, House Ships, Lighthouses, and Even Island Castles! Yeah Baby!!!
You asked for it, and here it is: we've added waterfront property options to villages, towns, and cities, allowing you to live on houseboats, ships, and islands! Oh yeah!
We received feedback that the Baron 2 tier is priced too high compared to the Baron 1 tier, so we're juicing up the rewards for the Baron 2's! Now you get a huge, double-decker Galleon to moor on your waterfront property, and you'll be the talk of the town when everyone sees the uniquely glorious crown perched proudly atop your avatar's head!
Update 24:

The Final Countdown, a Chat with Chris Roberts, and Lord Blackthorn!

We are in hour 10 of our 24 hour sit-in here at the Portalarium offices and we are so very humbled by your continued support and feedback! If you haven’t swung by the Kickstarter page lately, we are hosting a continuous LIVE Dev Cam as we count down the final moments of the campaign with you, our community!
We also have some new Concept Art and special videos to share with you!
The Forgotten City: New Concept Art by Stephen Daniele

In the arid lands to the East lies a forgotten city filled with magic and wonder. A place where few venture and even less return. Are you ready to accept the risk for the chance of reward?
SotA_desert.jpg
More information.
 
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Ghad. Most of these stretch goals are so far off the mark of interesting to me. I mean, I played the hell out of the originals, but they really lost me, somewhere along the way. It's almost like they had Molyneux on the project.
 
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The stretch goals were stuff that wasn't going to be in the game...all the stuff you like about the ultima's are going to be in them already....wouldn't you be more upset having to reach the goals to get basic stuff you expect?
 
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To be honest (seriously, being honest, and not intentionally reactionary), I kind of find some of them to be a turn-off, steering me away from the game. My stint playing WoW, years back, made me sensitive to cutesy, cosmetic systems (see: pets) that detract from immersion. Admittedly, I am in a very small minority here, so I am more than happy for others, who could quite well be excited for these additions. There are plenty of other games for me to play.
 
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I contributed in the hopes we will see something akin to a classic Ultima, but this really sounds more and more like an Ultima Online clone. :(
 
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You shouldn't base what pets are on a single game since there are other mmorpgs that actually make pets a useful aspect of gameplay or make them a central aspect and use them to increase complexity. They are not always just an aesthetic aspect and some of the games I have played couldn't be played without a pet. (atleast for some classes) I don't know if they will do the same thing here but even some of the best single player rpgs have some kind of pet so it could be similar here.

PS. They ended meeting the $2 million goal which I think was a waste unless they get to $2.25 million after with Paypal. All stretch goals between $1.8 million and $2.25 million were absolute crap.
 
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I'm telling you guys that it isn't that, look more in to the details of the game.
 
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Wow, I'm so happy they got to $2 million! That's awesome. The game sounds like it's going to be great. Probably won't rip me away from LOTRO at the moment, but definitely something I will check out at some point.
 
Glad to see that made it, and with quite a bit of dignity, too. Still not interested in the game, though, but who knows, maybe it leads LB back on the track where I need him to be.
Somewhat sorry to see they didn't make that next goal - might've made all the difference.
 
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I'm telling you guys that it isn't that, look more in to the details of the game.

I hear you Rune. I took a look at those links you posted in another thread (thanks again for that there was a lot of good reading/watching there) and there is enough solo player features to keep me interested in this game.

At the same time, there is a significant multiplayer momentum with this game that can't be denied. For those of us who are only interested in the solo play - the glut of info and chatter about the online aspects just aren't that interesting. But I can also see why RG is taking this path… because it certainly seems like there are far more players out there who are interested in the MMO aspect of this game than the solo player aspect as demonstrated by the number and frequency of questions posed by players that are focused on the multiplayer aspects.

I really wanted to be more excited about this game but while some focus is certainly on gameplay features I know I will like, there is also as much focus if not more on the online stuff which I already know I will not engage no matter how innovative and glorious it turns out. Like a lot of developers out there, RG is convinced that the multiplayer phenomena has just begun. I on the other hand, am totally burnt out on it and completely uninterested. Stick a fork in me, I am utterly done with MMOs.

Anyone who shares my views on this probably also feels the way I do that the more I read about SotA the more I feel like I'm a periphery demographic and certainly not part of their primary audience.

The good news is that kickstarter has brought a crop of new indie games in development that I am looking very much forward to so if SotA doesn't do it for me, at least some of the others will.
 
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I had that same feeling, but after multiple conversations with the devs is that they feel very confident in the single player stuff and without getting into the story(which they are keeping close to their chest) they can't really go to far. They said many of the MP things haven't been as fleshed out.
 
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Maybe then the main reason for the kickstarter is that they had enough already to make the single player game but not enough for the multiplayer portion (mmorpgs cost much more to make then srpgs for the most part) so they needed more money for it. That would explain the multiplayer focus for the kickstarter.
 
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Maybe then the main reason for the kickstarter is that they had enough already to make the single player game but not enough for the multiplayer portion (mmorpgs cost much more to make then srpgs for the most part) so they needed more money for it. That would explain the multiplayer focus for the kickstarter.
I don't think so. As Rune has pointed out before there already was a single player game from the start. It was however an online single player mode. What I think TheMadGamer was referring to and I am as well is the offline single player mode.
That is the mode that wasn't there at the start. At that point in time single player was envisioned to be online only.
From what I have read I get the impression that single player offline is just like how single player online is at the start, with the exception that you are not online and don't see any of the changes to the environment and the game itself in time. As an example was given that you don't see any of the shops other players have created.

With RG's obvious focus on online gaming before the Kickstarter and all the talk about the wonderful online features I just hope there is a good offline single player game in the end.
 
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So many MMOs are built on a SP architecture. As the SP is embedded, repacking it and selling it to players comes easily.
When reading the stretch goals, so many of them address adding mundane features destined to add flavour to a MMO, it is hard to believe that developpment resources will be allocated to a quality SP game.

Offline SP is going to be a stripped backbone of gameplay.
 
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I agree with Myrthos and ChienAboyeur. Many mmo's can be emulated and played solo, but that doesn't make them enjoyable. For that reason alone I decided to wait for the final product to see what the game really is. I wont judge it yet.
 
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^ ^This. I won't judge the game yet, nor have I backed it. If it turns out to be good, I'll buy it, but the whole MMO-single-player hybrid makes me a bit leery, especially with "Lord British's" more recent track record. But hey, I would love to have my doubts turn out to be unfounded.
 
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MMO part could work for me if its done guild wars style. Cities are multiplayer zones while everything outside them is singleplayer unless you party with people when in city.
 
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I don't think so. As Rune has pointed out before there already was a single player game from the start. It was however an online single player mode. What I think TheMadGamer was referring to and I am as well is the offline single player mode.
That is the mode that wasn't there at the start. At that point in time single player was envisioned to be online only.
From what I have read I get the impression that single player offline is just like how single player online is at the start, with the exception that you are not online and don't see any of the changes to the environment and the game itself in time. As an example was given that you don't see any of the shops other players have created.

This leads me back to thinking that the offline single player game was much further along and would have been finished even without the kickstarter and that (again) the kickstarter was meant for the multiplayer. The online single player was thought up because maybe people that want to play the single player game may want the extras that come only from playing online so now people that play single player can get those things also.

With RG's obvious focus on online gaming before the Kickstarter and all the talk about the wonderful online features I just hope there is a good offline single player game in the end.

Like I have been saying for awhile offline single player has been in since the kickstarter began.

Multiplayer?! But what if I want to play offline?

The game can be played offline, no connection required. The character used for the offline version of the game will not be useable in the online version of the game for obvious exploit/hacking reasons. We are going to investigate ways to export your online character to the single player version of the game but the offline character will not be importable into the online version.

The above is from the FAQ on the Kickstarter page and was there on day 1 and from the answer it may have been where the online single player version was the actual afterthough since they refer in the quote as the offline version being "the single player version of the game". I expect that people are confusing the offline with the online single player when it comes to what came after the kickstarter started.
 
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